Sister Natalie Oswald : I'll Stay Where You Want Me to STAY!

I am staying!!!!! YAY! I was so so happy....the song we sang for comp study was I will go where you want me to go....but instead I switched go...with the word stay....haha....

Transfer calls come Friday morning and if you don't get a call from the Zone Leaders telling you that you are staying by 10am...that means you are leaving. So we are having comp study and 9:55 rolls around and I just start crying! I was not happy...well at 10:06 our phone starts ringing and IT WAS THE ZONE LEADERS! and they told me I was staying! Then I cried I little bit more because I was so happy! They wanted to be funny....reallllll funny elders....realllll funny....

This week was so great! Welllll....actually it was really slow! Thanksgiving break means that campus is EMPTY.

But we still got to find great people to teach! We picked up a new investigator! His name is Dan and he is the coolest! We were trying to decide if we wanted to go visit a few people in the Living Center or if we wanted to trek through the cold and to be honest...that was the last thing I wanted to do...but I decided that I should be a big girl and go! So we did and right as we go out we stopped Dan! His sister got baptized like 3 years ago! He told us he wasn't too sure and then we asked him if he had any questions and oh boy did he have questions! They were all soo good! We started talking to him about the plan of salvation and we got to the part of us dying and Sister Rogers says "eventually we all die!" and then it got silent....and I said "it happens" and he laughed and then he said "Yeah it happens..." and Sister Rogers nods her head and say " Yep...happens..." Then this girl walks up and says "you guys need to get off of campus there is a bomb threat...." and then I said "but we will all be resurrected! He really liked the plan of salvation! He said he had the question of "what happens to the people who never even hear about God or Jesus Christ?' it was cool to be able to explain that to him! He was soo awesome! After like 45 minutes of standing in the cold we decided to walk back to the institute and have a lesson so we walked back and taught him the restoration! :) Then that next morning at eight we met again and taught the plan of salvation! He said well my sister will be happy I am reading the Book of Mormon! DAN. IS. COOL.

We taught Kyle this week and had a friend from China Skype in! Kyle loved it! We taught him the Law of Chastity and we would have Shuning explain a part of it and Kyle and him would just talk in Chinese back and forth and then Kyle would hold up two thumbs up and say got it and then they would turn back to us! We had Sister Jacobsen, her grand-daughter Eliza there, and President Jacobsen came in for a bit! It was soo cool to be able to Skype someone from China and have him and Kyle really connect! Kyle is the sweetest! He should be baptized December 6th but we want to make sure he feels ready! :) Oh man he is the best! On Thanksgiving he text us and told us thanks for being so kind and patient with him! KYLE. IS. THE. BEST.

VALLLLERIIEE! Oh my gosh I love her! She had her baptismal interview and she just came out beaming and soo happy! I wanted to cry I was soo happy too....haha! Then we had a lesson after and after our lesson we all told child hood stories for a little while and we all were laughing until we cried! It was the best! She is sooo hilarious! :) We are meeting with her tonight to finish up the lessons!

Thanksgiving was soo wonderful! We had Ramya from India, Thien from Vietnam, Chirs from China, Nong from Burma, and Celeste from Somalia all ate with us at the institute! It was so much fun! We all shared different cultural things from our country! Thien at one point turns to me and says "Oshwald...what is the point of this?" haha I said "Welll Thien....We all get together and be thankful and have a dinner together!" and he just looked at me and then went back to eating....haha oh Thien! We all played ping pong and foosball together after! It was soo much fun!

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday campus was sooo dead!!! We walked around so sad because there was no one....so we decided to try and go to the library to get on Facebook and see if we could message a few people and what not...but we got on the wrong bus and it took us down town to Lansing and it was BEAUTIFUL! We went past the beautiful capitol building with their GIANT Christmas tree! It was the best mistake ever! Haha #noregrets

Anyways can I just tell you all how Thankful I am for all of you! We were talking to Bishop Solomon at the institute the other day and he is from Hawaii (by the way dad Bishop wants to know were you served and some of the people you remember! He was so happy you served in Hawaii!) and he was talking about how Hawaiins really look to their ancestors and try to live up to their family name and how their ancestors worked so hard to get there and how you should work hard to further the name even more and I just realized I have big shoes to fill! I have for to work so hard to honor my family name and past ancestors because they have done amazing things and have been such a wonderful example and I would never want to do anything opposite of that! I am so grateful for all that you all do for me! Especially mom and dad! I cannot even begin to express the love and gratitude I have for both of you...words are limiting! But I really do love and appreciate all the love and support I have from all of you! I am the luckiest! Really...I am. I cannot even describe the feeling! But oh my do I have the perfect life!

Much Michigan Love,

Sister Oswald

P.S. I had a dream last night that the assistants called and wanted me to do my homecoming, going into the airport and such 3 months before I get home. So...I will see you in a month I guess...

1. Christmas is set up :)